Gluten free bakery – strong demand continues

Recently Gluten Free Pages were approached by Greg Pointing a representative of AB Mauri, regarding an article we wrote about the Australian Gluten free market. They are an ingredient supplier to the gluten free industry and on the 14 April 2010 Greg gave a talk to about 50 bakery representatives in Melbourne. He was wanting to know a little history behind the article and demand, so here it is, specific to gluten free bakeries.

From our perspective the gluten free bakery is vital to GFP and the people of Australia.  And here are the amazing reasons why.

The Gluten free as a category is the fastest growing food segment in Australia and the world and has been for the last few years, in fact it easily beats most industries, but was starting off a low base.

When someone is looking for gluten free products they usually look online, due to the poor state of physical shops supply. In March 2010, Google still rates ‘gluten free’ as the overall category killer, and gluten free pages is the only gluten free directory on page one  of Google for this term. Hence why we recommend gluten free bakery places to advertise their wares on us, and get their message out there, but more on that later.

When you look at the online statistics, apart for variations of the generic gluten free recipe, gluten free bakery products are in the top fifteen searched gluten free items in Australia. Specifically gluten free breads and gluten free cakes are the most specific gluten free foods that people are looking for.

 

 

Where do people buy gluten free bakery products from then?

Well many people may think that of course at one of the two supermarkets which control 80% of grocery goods in Australia. I am sure that if you are a celiac that you have tried to buy gluten free bread there, but when it is in stock, you may find that there is a very limited choice, it is half the size, double the density, falls apart and is a gluten free bread is expensive. In fact most gluten free products are expensive due to the cost of ingredients and lack of supply.

What are the solutions then?

Well it appears that gluten free bakery stores are currently an oxymoron (ie like fairies at the bottom of the garden, or hen’s teeth, are very hard to find).  And it seems that this trend has been due to the traditional nature of bakeries, that is, they will keep selling wheat and gluten bread until they die, because people have stopped asking for it, knowing that they don’t sell it.

Is there really a demand for such bread or a gluten free bakery?

Consider this. One of the original primary uses for wheat was to make breads. Celiac can not eat gluten breads, so they either forgo the enjoyment all together, seek out a gluten free bakery that does not exist, or put up with the often less than adequate bread at their local supermarket.

Then there is the added hassle of having to avoid cross contamination. That is, if a bakery is not gluten free exclusive, they need to make sure that gluten flour is not mixed into the gluten free flour and that all baking surfaces used to prepare gluten free pastries and breads are not contaminated with gluten.

What kind of demand are we talking?

The often stated celiac diagnosis rate in Australia is 1% of the population, with 20% of those actually being diagnosed.  However, it seems that the gluten intolerant, health conscious people and friends and family of celiac may make up to 20% of the population. Sure, not everyone of those people HAVE to have gluten free, it’s just their preference. But you can see how this leads to gluten free bakeries to being one of the biggest untapped markets in existence.

What does Gluten Free Pages intend to do about this?

Here is a very big secret. Gluten free bakery searches, page visits etc regularly make the top ten most visited categories on our site, and often in the top five. While the Google stats include associated terms such as celiac disease etc, our site funnels people to the gf foods they want to buy, and overwhelmingly, these are gluten free bakery products. It appears that many people are searching for generic gluten free terms on the net, then once inside of our site, looking for specific gluten free foods.

And here is the rub. With such a strong external demand for gluten free bakery products (bread and cakes, not to mention muffins etc) and such a strong internal demand inside of Gluten Free Pages, why aren’t bakeries either making gluten free products or advertising themselves?

Apart from their lack of knowledge of the market, and the need to avoid cross contamination, it appears that the media has not made enough noise about this rising tide of celiac diagnosis and gluten free massive demand growth. It is possible that some bakeries have considered going gluten free, but with such uncertainty about the demand (In the past) and not knowing that this is not just part of a passing trend, they have not put investment into it? Probably. 

While traditional media may help them advertise gluten free a little bit, it’s often very expensive and they get lost in the clutter. That is why gluten free pages exists, to cut through the clutter and  make it easier for anyone to find gluten free bakeries and products in general.  A person who has searched on gluten free or gluten free bakeries is a very motivated visitor, they are generally there to find out more information on where to buy their gluten free food. When a gluten free bakery provides their own information page on Gluten Free pages, and announces itself in our newsletter, they are gaining a strong advantage over their competition.

We look forward to bringing more gluten free bakeries information to our growing number of visitors.

 

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Article by Bruce Dwyer - GoLeftfield Marketing (www.brucedwyer.com)